Picking Up the Pieces // Harry Styles

Four

Four

HARRY'S POV

"He's just . . . lost." I heard her say from the top of the stairs.

The girl understood me. She seemed to be hurting herself. Why did I push her away? Why did I kick her out like I did with the boys? The one person who finally seemed to understand, I shoved her away. I was an idiot. I hated myself for that. I hated myself period.

So does she, A voice whispered to me as I shut my eyes.

They do too.

I rubbed my temples, crumbling to my knees. I pulle dmy knees into my chest and broke down into quiet sobs. Zayn saw me, coming up the stairs to check on me. Hiding how startled he was to see me out of my room, he spoke to me like a child, but even that didn't heal my wounded heart.

"Hey buddy," He rubbed my shaking shoulders. "Let's get you cleaned up and then go to the park or something, all right?"

I sniffed, wiping my eyes and giving him a small nod. The older boy brought me up to my feet, got me something to wear, and let me hit the showers.

I turned the water on as hot as possible. Still, I felt nothing. I didn't hiss or back away. I allowed it to leave red marks all along my skin. I let the water run on my face, but still didn't feel any pain. I felt like I deserved the pain in a way but never felt a thing.

Numb. That's all I was. Numb.

Maybe - just maybe - I'd feel something for once, before I slipped away and was gone.

SCARLETT'S POV

"You did somthing right." I looked up as Zayn returned to the livingr oom. "He came out his room. He actually want to go out."

The boys grinned as I smiled a little, really in disbelief. "T-That's great! Where are we going?"

"The park. Maybe grab something to eat along the way. He needs a cheeseburger."

* * * *

I rode with the lads in between Liam and a very quiet Harry. The boys seemed to look at me a different way. I was their hope.

Harry's hope.

They really believed I could fix him.

It was hard to fix someone who was broken. Especially if they seemed to like being broken and didn't open up very easily. I sat down on the grass next to Niall, us looking up at the clouds for a while. Eventually I looked back up to the Earth, becoming completely in awe of Louis, Liam, Zayn, and Ed's football skills. Mainly Louis' though.

"Louis!" I yelled, catching his attention. He looked up at me, giving me a small smile. "What's it like being good at sports?" Niall laughed along with Louis and I.

"It's awesome." he kicked the ball to me, much to my surprise. "C'mere love!"

"Louis, I'm not really athletic." I admitted shyly. Louis shook his head and jogged over to me.

"How long you staying?"

"Umm," I scratched the back of my neck. "I don't know."

Louis frowned a little. "You gotta place to stay, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be at Ed's for a while."

"Then you're going back home?"

"It's not really home anymore, Louis." I whispered, looking down a little.

"How old are you?" He asked softly, changing the subject. He seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk about it.

"Twenty seven."

He laughed. "You eighteen? Nineteen?"

"Yup. Nineteen."

"Well, in the amount of time we have with you, I will make you the second best nineteen year old football player ever."

"Who's the best?"

"Me. Duh." He said in a 'duh' tone.

"You're not nineteen." I scoffed.

"He thinks he's nineteen." Liam whispered as I snickered a little. Louis stuck his tongue out at Liam now. "More like nine."

I giggled, but flinched as Louis snapped his fingers in my face like a strict teacher.

"Pay attention now! Let me show you how to kick."

And he did. For the most part he didn't laugh, but I often laughed at myself so he joined in. It only took a couple tries till I was passing the ball to Liam and scoring goals. Strangely, I was pretty good at it.

"Yes!" I screamed, seeing the ball fly past Zayn and into our goal. "Louis! Did you see that?! You saw that right?!"

"I did!" He high fived me with a big grin. "Your secret lover saw it too."

"L-Lover?" I choked on my own spit. "What? Louis!"

He hummed innocently, yelling at Ed to pass the ball. I glared at him then looked for Harry. Louis snickered but I ignored him. Harry locked eyes with me for only a secnd, before looking at the sidewalk and following the winding path away from the play area. I bit my lip and sat back down next to Niall.

"Niall, what happened to Harry exactly?" I whispered. "He didn't just wake up like this, did he?"

NIall shrugged. "Uhh, kinda. It was after he broke up with Taylor Swift."

"Eww."

"We all warned him. He didn't listen. He would storm out after yelling at us to call her or something. Then they broke up."

"Taylor's hurting him."

"How?"

"You tell me." I challenged.

It took Niall a little while but he finally concluded something. "We're on break right now. It's a long one I think. Management just wants us to relax. Harry's been under fire a lot. That's when he started to get quieter and quieter. On his phone a lot. Him and Zayn mostly get attacked. Zayn's tough and all and can brush it out but Harry's a little sensitive to it all. Sometimes we forget he's the baby of the group."

Bullying was really all it was. The way Taylor might write a song about him or dress like him in a music video. Taylor was bullying him and Harry was forced to keep his mouth shut.

Maybe that's why he has so many tattoos. They speak for him, because he in fact can't.

"Oh no." Niall suddenly said, looking in the direction that Harry had been walking in.

"What?"

"It's h-her. Taylor's here."